The subject of this patent application relates generally to electrocardiography, and more particularly to a system and associated methods for classifying arrhythmia-related heartbeats based on extracted data from an at least one lead of an electrocardiogram recording.
Applicant(s) hereby incorporate herein by reference any and all patents and published patent applications cited or referred to in this application.
By way of background, electrocardiography is the process of recording the electrical activity of a patient's heart over a period of time using electrodes placed on the patient's skin. Electrodes on different parts of the body detect electrical impulses coming from different directions within the heart. In a standard twelve-lead electrocardiogram (“ECG”), the electrical activity of the heart is measured and recorded from twelve different angles (commonly referred to as “leads”) across the body. The graph of voltage versus time produced by this non-invasive medical procedure is referred to as an electrocardiogram (“ECG” or “EKG”). The ECG is the most commonly used non-invasive tool to diagnose heart disease. It is also the standard method used to detect and diagnose arrhythmias, which are cardiac conditions caused by the abnormal electrical activity of the heart. Depending on the region of the origin of arrhythmias, they are broadly classified as either supraventricular or ventricular. The presence of transient, short-term or infrequent arrhythmias can only be detected by monitoring the electrical activity of the heart for long periods of time. Visual analysis of these long-term ECG recordings by a cardiologist tends to be very tedious and time-consuming. Thus, a major challenge is the development of an efficient decision support system capable of analyzing large volumes of recorded ECG data in a fast and efficient way, in order to aid in decision-making and informing patients as quickly as possible regarding potential treatment options.
Aspects of the present invention fulfill these needs and provide further related advantages as described in the following summary.